Just Friends
by dusk writer
Summary: Story of how Race and Anna went from being just friends to something more. Oneshot! Rated T just in case. I don't own the newsies yada yada.


**A/N Isn't it amazing how ideas can come to you? I was just sitting in the car with my grandmother, mother, and sister listening to my ipod, trying to tune them out, when the idea for this fic hit me. Or rather it was sung to me in the form of the song Just Friends by the Jonas Brothers. So yeah, that is my amazing method of coming up with fanfic plot ideas. Hope you like this, its my first oneshot so please go easy on me.**

Me and Anna have been friends since she first became a newsie. She was just seven years old when her parents died. Obviously she didn't want to go to the refuge so she wandered around for a while and eventually came across the newsie lodging house. Jack hadn't even started his rise to becoming leader of the Manhattan newsies yet. Back then me and Jack were just two nine year old newsies trying to make it on our own in the terrifying city that is New York. Jack, all tough and smart when it came to newsie matters, and me Racetrack, always joking with a gambling problem, even at nine.

Anna came to us one day eight years ago (actually she came to the then leader of Manhattan, but who's really keeping track anyway?) and was dubbed a newsie straight away. She was a bit shy back then and wouldn't talk to the rest of us much so me and Jack made it our mission to look out for her, like a little sister or something. Eventually we became friends, and then best friends, and soon after Jack started rising to power, me and Anna were just about as close as close can be.

Jack became leader in the next few years. By the time he was full leader, we were fourteen and Anna was twelve. (Jack sort of went solo at this time but I was always, and remain until this day, his unofficial right-hand man.)

Anna and I did everything together and some, especially Mush, would tease us about being in "love." Whatever that meant at thirteen. But as time went on, we grew up, and you know what that means for a guy? Girls girls girls. I kind of figured after a while that Anna started feeling neglected, I mean we had been best friends for seven years at this point and inseperable friends at that.

But everyone could start to tell that it was meant to be between us, even if I hadn't gotten the clue yet that Anna liked me. It wasn't even until I was approaching my seventeenth birthday that I started to see her in a new light. It was like one day she's that sweet little seven year old, all lost and shy, and the next she's become a woman. At fifteen she already looked like some of the older girls I was dating.

We kept it casual for the longest time. We would just go about or business as usual. I still thought she was under the impression that we were _just_ friends. Just friends. It was a fatal thought for me but I just treasured the moments we spent together. I just kept on dreaming and fantasizing about being more than friends. I knew it would happen one day. One day she'd wake up with me on her mind and realize we were meant to be together.

But man, one thing that was okay about being _just_ friends was that we could just talk and still have an amazing time together. But if I had _my _way, we'd talk all day, and we'd never run out of things to say. Thus was the affect of her on me and visa versa.

Then, one night, when I was eighteen (for those bad at math, Anna was sixteen) and we were just taking a walk in Central Park, she let me know, I had been on her mind. It _had _happened.

"Race, can I tell you something?" Anna asked.

"Sure, you know you can tell me anything." I told her.

She didn't even say anything. Just stepped in front of me and took my face in her hands. She looked at me with those gorgeous blue-green eyes of hers and kissed me gently on the lips. When she drew back I just beamed at her. She smiled back and kissed me again. When she drew her head back the second time she stared giggling and it was contagious. I started laughing too and pretty soon we were rolling on the ground laughing hysterically. When I had finally controlled myself I turned to her and said

"God, you don't know how long I've waited for this to happen. Anna, I love you."

"Race, I love you too." I stood up and put out a hand to help her up and we just walked out of the park and back to the lodging house talking the whole way. We talked all night and, wouldn't you know it, never ran out of things to say. Things were said that night that I had been holding back for over a year. It felt good to say them and have my feelings returned. _Now we're more than friends._ I thought.

Looking back on this moment and on that period of my life is something I love to do. It was the moment I found real love. It's been almost twenty years since then and Anna and I are now married. Jack was my best man of course and many of our old friends were there too. The moment she walked down the isle and I saw her, my face just smiled.

It now seems funny to think about those days of our friendship, when we used to be just friends.


End file.
